Posts Tagged ‘London’

After travelling to Berlin more than a month ago, I was amazed at how advanced their transport and cycle network was in comparison with our own. Roads were virtually empty (well by London standards anyway!!). Buses and Trains had sensible approaches to ticketing (forget Oyster cards and turnstiles; you’re free to get off and on when you want, but if you don’t have a ticket you’re fined a hefty amount). And the support for cyclists was amazing. Cyclists were catered for in near enough every part of the city, and every shop had bike parking outside so you didn’t have to walk halfway through town to get from your bike to the shop.

It was this that inspired me to start cycling to and from places in Lincoln again. Plus I needed to lose some weight!!

However, I was flabbergasted at the attitude of many motorists when attempting to take to the roads. I had cars pulling in front of me or speeding past me, and been close to many accidents in the last few weeks. You also feel like a burden to other road users, with scowls from on-coming cars in a narrow lane or motorists hitting the accelerator too hard as they overtake you.

If elected, one of my priorities will be to sort transport out properly. We should have properly designed cycle paths, not bits of red paint randomly placed on the road to achieve cycle path targets. And we should encourage walking, cycling, and public transport. Especially for short journeys.

However, those that do need to drive should not be disadvantaged either. Major changes such as minimising disruption to road users at the rail crossing on the high street need to be made. The barriers come down for what seems like hours before a train actually passes, whilst just outside of Lincoln there are crossings near schools on a “stop, look and listen” basis. And the trains are going much faster through these areas then as they come through Lincoln Central Station!!